I've been a BAD blogger!

Gosh, I've been a BAD blogger lately. 

Why? Well, that's a good question!

Two of the travellers in my family returned from their adventures in Peru a week ago, and suddenly the peace and quiet I was just getting used to, returned to a more normal routine.  Not that the travellers are really noisy or anything like that, but just as I was getting the hang of just two of us at home, we have become four.

The other traveller is still away for a few more weeks ..... 

hmmm, wonder if I should change the locks?

I have also been selling off some of my Stampin' Up! stamps along with other items I no longer want or need. These are discontinued but most are in very good condition and some are brand new. 

As my taste has changed in my crafty adventure, these items are just sitting on shelves or in baskets and just don't see the light of day.  

My crafting friend, Jenni, made the suggestion a few weeks ago, of selling them off.  

So a week and a half ago, I listed one item to test the water (so to speak) and within 2 hours I had sold it - YIPPEE!!!  Then, I listed the remainder and I am very happy to say that my SU stash has reduced somewhat and my bank balance has risen.

Now I can go shopping again for new goodies - WOOHOO!!!

I have, however, been doing a small amount of crafting.  

To use up bits & pieces of stash, I have been making ATC's to abandon.  I joined a FB group called Art Abandonment which is an international group where people abandon all sorts of different items.  I liked the idea of leaving an item abandoned for someone to find and keep (or give away again, it's up to them) and it uses up some of my little bits of paper and such.

These papers came from the February 2015 edition of Making Cards magazine.

These papers came from Kaisercraft "Sandy Toes" collection.

I have been abandoning at my local shopping centre, at the nursing home where my mother-in-law resides and at a few other places.

Hopefully they will put a smile on someone's face.

 

So, that's what I have been up to lately. 

Hopefully I'll be back to crafting on a more regular basis again soon

and my blogging will follow suit.

 

Happy Crafting! 

Bokeh Bird

Recently I was at a craft event where the challenge of the day was to make something with circles.  As this week's challenge at Stampotique is also circles, I thought I would share this card.

The background is the Bokeh technique which I came across in a recent Craft Stamper magazine.  This technique is so easy and each one is unique.  I've used three Distress Inks on this one, with the white spots being SU Whisper White ink.

This cute little bird is from Dina Wakely's "Scribbly Birds" collection of stamps

(if that is incorrect, please let me know as I borrowed the stamp)

and is coloured blending two different Distress Inks and just a smidge of red.  The beak was coloured with a marker.  The bird was then cut out and adhered to the card. The words are from the same set of stamps.

Each time I make a Bokeh background I use different combinations of colour, and no two are ever the same.  This is my current favourite background so if you see more cards etc in the next few postings of this blog, you'll know why!

Happy Crafting!!!

A Day at the Zoo!

..... and just for something different,

today is my 

BIRTHDAY!!!

 

I have just enjoyed a lovely day at Taronga Zoo with my BFF, her son & nephew, and my #3 son.  As half of my family are travelling overseas, my Bestie asked me if I would like to have a day at the Zoo to celebrate my birthday.  As it has been some years since I was last there, I thought it was a terrific idea and so we have spent today looking at all the various animal exhibits.

My favourite animal would have to be the Red Pandas, a little hard to see in the trees but so cute!  Next on the cuteness level would have to be the Meerkats,

followed by the Lemurs,

and as for the giraffes - they still have the best view in the whole of the zoo!

The Sun Bear has a coat which just looks like plush velvet,

and ....... all the animals are so different in their own unique ways!

Bev & Helen

 

Thank you so much for the terrific suggestion - I'm still smiling!

Feeling Abandoned

It's very quiet in my house at the moment, 3 out of 5 family members are travelling overseas, 

which only leaves son #3 and myself at home.  

Not only that, but we no longer have any furry four footed friends either - our little dog passed away at the end of November and sadly our 18 year old kitty cat passed away 2 weeks ago, leaving one goldfish (very hard to cuddle a goldfish).

As I said, very quiet in our house ........ , 

however that leaves lots of time for playing and crafting,

 so this week I decided to use up more scraps to make ATC's to abandon in various locations.

The background papers are leftover pieces from an 8" x 8" "Time to Flourish" collection from Graphic 45.  This was such a lovely collection and included little quotes and other words.

The butterfly and dragonfly are from Prima "Butterfly Wings" and are the perfect size to add to the ATC's.  Although it is hard to see in the photos, they are only attached by their bodies so the wings can lift up.  To give them more sparkle, I have used a Wink of Stella pen on their wings.

I managed to abandon three of these little works of art today, 

one in a cafe where I had lunch with some friends, the second when I visited my mother-in-law in her nursing home and the third in the ladies rest room at my local shopping centre.  Hope they put a smile on the recipient's face, although I'll probably never know!

Tomorrow I'm off to Craftanoon for 12 hours with my friend, so I'd better get packing!

Take care and I'll be back again soon.

 

Happy Crafting!

 

Feathers but no fur

I was having a little play with backgrounds today and decided this one would work very nicely for the Tagalong Challenge this week - Feathers & Fur

I was flicking through last month's Craft Stamper magazine and came across a different use for stencils.  

Actually, I use this method for mop-ups in my art journal - hmmm!!!

Anyway as I was saying, ink up the stencil with Distress Inks, I used 'peeled paint' and 'peacock feathers', give it a quick spritz with water, pop it down onto the tag, place another piece of scrap paper on top and for even pressure, roll a brayer over the top.  Voila!   A nice easy watercolour effect background.

Next I stamped the leaves (Dylusions "How Does Your Garden Grow") directly onto the tag and then again on scrap white card.  Colour and cut out the leaves and place them over the stamped images.

"Bird Crazy" (Tim Holtz) was stamped directly onto the tag and three times more onto white cardstock for a 3D look.  His feet and tail are the first layer, his body the second layer and his wings, beak and eyes are the third layer.  I also gave him googly eyes just for fun!  A green ribbon finishes off the tag.

I'm really happy that Tim Holtz created these Crazy Birds - hope he designs some more crazy animals!

 

Happy Crafting!

 

APC Challenge - Displayed

Two posts in one day - gosh, how did that happen?

 

So, now that I'm up-to-date and the Altered Playing Card challenge has come to an end, I thought I'd show how I'm displaying all the cards.  I have some plastic sleeves which are for general trading cards (you know, for collectable cards etc) and my finished cards fit perfectly.

Page 1

 

 Page 2

 

 Page 3

 

 Page 4

Page 5

 

 Page 6

 

So, there they all are - six pages in total.  Lots of different techniques were used, some easier than others, but overall I'm fairly happy with how they all look.

Happy Crafting!

 

APC Challenge - Week 26

Yesterday I posted about the last two cards for the

Altered Playing Card Challenge.

I realised after I had posted them that I hadn't posted the cards I made for week #26, so without further ado, here they are:

The prompt for these cards was monotone i.e. use various tones of one colour.

The stamps are part of plate #925 from VivaLasVega stamps, but as I bought them a couple of years ago, I'm not sure whether they are still available.

 

 Happy Stamping!